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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Salvatore tell his mother after he took a good look at Assunta?
(a) He would rather marry his own brother.
(b) He would marry her.
(c) He would marry her if she fixed herself up a bit.
(d) He would rather die than marry her.

2. What simile is used to describe Salvatore's hands when he is not bathing his children?
(a) Like clouds.
(b) Like loaves of bread.
(c) Like legs of mutton.
(d) Like bricks.

3. Why does Salvatore's fiancé say she can no longer marry him?
(a) She is moving far away.
(b) She has fallen in love with someone else.
(c) She has married somebody else.
(d) He will never be able to work.

4. With whom did Salvatore fish with on his boat in the evenings during fishing season?
(a) Assunta.
(b) His sons.
(c) One of his brothers.
(d) His parents.

5. How is Assunta described physically?
(a) Heavy-set but jolly.
(b) Unkempt and scraggly.
(c) Beautiful and delicate featured.
(d) Unattractive and old-looking.

Short Answer Questions

1. What word is used to describe Salvatore's body after marrying?

2. What did foreigners say about Italian fishermen when they saw Salvatore on the beach?

3. How is Salvatore's laughter described when he bathes his child?

4. Why did Assunta not marry the man to whom she had been engaged?

5. What did Salvatore do for work when he was not fishing after he married and had children?

Short Essay Questions

1. Though Salvatore found Assunta physically unattractive, what could she offer him if they married?

2. What would Salvatore do if his rheumatism became too bad for him to work?

3. How did Salvatore's family learn he was not going to marry the girl he loved?

4. What happened to Assunta's fiancé?

5. Describe Salvatore washing his babies near the end of the story?

6. Why does Salvatore understand that the girl he loves will not marry him?

7. What did Salvatore do for work after he and Assunta married?

8. How is Assunta described after she and Salvatore marry? What does she look like? What type of person is she?

9. What did Salvatore's fiancé tell him "with the blunt directness of her race" (5) when he went to see her at her home after he returned rom military service?

10. What does the narrator say he set out to do in the story?

(see the answer keys)

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